Tour de France: Chris Froome extends lead with stage 10 win

Chris Froome celebrates victory on stage 10 of the Tour de France

Chris Froome extended his lead of the Tour de France by blowing all of his rivals away in an emphatic victory on stage 10's mountain-top finish.

Froome attacked out of an elite front group with 6.4km of the climb to the Pyrenean ski resort of La Pierre-Saint-Martin remaining and went on to win by 59 seconds from runner-up and fellow Team Sky rider Richie Porte.

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) finished 1min 4sec down on Froome in third, but the other pre-race favourites suffered heavy losses on a chastening first mountain stage of this year's race.

Froome approaches the finish line, extending his overall race lead to almost three minutes

Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) dropped 2min 30sec, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) lost 2min 51sec and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) saw the defence of his 2014 title all but ended after he finished 4min 25sec down.

It means Froome now leads the race by 2min 52sec from second-placed Van Garderen and 3min 9sec from third-placed Quintana.

Contador’s hopes of completing the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double are in tatters as he now lies 4min 4sec down in sixth, while Nibali is 6min 57sec back in 10th following another tepid display.

Nairo Quintana finished 1min 4sec down on Froome in third

The stage was a major show of supremacy from Froome and offered little to suggest his rivals have the capability to overturn their already sizeable deficits on the race's remaining five summit finishes.

Froome said: "I'm lost for words. That was unbelievable. I couldn't believe it when I asked the guys to push on a little bit and we were just hearing on the radio the big names who were getting dropped. It was textbook from the team. The guys rode such a good race there. I'm over the moon to have been able to finish it off for them."

From left, Froome, Tejay van Garderen, Quintana and Alberto Contador on the climb to La Pierre-Saint-Martin

Team Sky were strangely given a day off pace-setting on the front of the peloton by Quintana’s Movistar and the Spanish squad also led the way up the first half of the hors-categorie final climb.

Their frantic pace saw Nibali dropped with 9.5km to go, but the effort came at a cost because the exhausted Movistar domestiques were soon peeling off one by one and Team Sky subsequently took charge.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) twice attacked in a bid to put pressure on Froome, but each time he was chased down by the outstanding Geraint Thomas (Team Sky).

Froome attacked with 6.4km of the final climb remaining

When Contador then fell away under the merciless pace with 6.5km to go, Froome seized the moment by attacking almost straight away and only Quintana had to the strength to give chase. The Colombian initially held a gap to Froome of around 15 seconds, but the Briton was in electric form and soon began pulling away at a rapid rate.

Insult was added to injury for Quintana when Porte caught and passed him in the final 1km to complete a memorable day for Team Sky, which was further enhanced when Thomas crossed the line sixth to move up to fifth overall.

Contador was one of the pre-race favourites who suffered heavy losses

There were three Britons in the top 10 on the stage after Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) finished an impressive 2min 4sec down in seventh.

The Tour continues on Wednesday with the second of three back-to-back summit finishes in the Pyrenees, a 188km 11th stage from Pau to Cauterets. Follow it with our live blog from 1pm BST and find out more about the route in our race guide.

Stage 10 result

1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 4:22:07

2 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, +59 secs

3 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +1:04

4 Robert Gesink (Net) Lotto, +1:33

5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +2:01

6 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, st

7 Adam Yates (GB) Orica-GreenEdge, +2:04

8 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar, st

9 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, +2:22

10 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, +2:30

General classification

1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 35:56:09

2 Tejay van Garderen (US) BMC Racing, +2:52

3 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +3:09

4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +4:01

5 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, +4:03

6 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, +4:04

7 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, +4:33

8 Robert Gesink (Net) LottoNL-Jumbo, +4:35

9 Warren Barguil (Fra) Giant-Alpecin, +6:12

10 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +6:57